I. Call to Order
Chair, Don Boileau called the meeting to order at 3:04 pm.

II. Approval of Minutes
The Minutes of Sept. 12 and the continuation meeting of Sept. 19 were approved
with the following correction: the last page of the continuation meeting of
Sept 19 should state in the last paragraph of the motion Section C and D of
the motion was
deleted.

III. Unfinished Business
The Nominations Committee concluded their elections of committees.Committee on Communication with the Board of Visitors: Rich
Rubenstein elected Writing Across the Curriculum: David Rine electedTechnology Committee: Alok Berry, Rich Carver, Maria Dworzecka
electedMinority and Diversity Issues: Jim Metcalf elected Salary Equity Committee: John Hysom, HoWon Jeong elected

Dial-up modem access to the web was discussed. Don Boileau reported on the discussions
he had with the administration following C. Mattusch’s motion made at
the Sept. 19 meeting. Alan Merten, President and Joy Hughes, Vice President
for Information Technology opposed changing the policy made on the dial-up access.
President Merten will be invited to respond to the Senate at the November 7
meeting. John Zenelis will check on library access, which is currently a problem.
Joy Hughes was asked to contact the Technology Policy Committee of the Faculty
Senate.

Two new items have been referred to the committee: (1) resolving the discrepancy
between the Senate-mandated C- grade and the way the university defines satisfactory
standing (requested by Associate Provost Schwartzstein); and (2) questions
from CAS Assistant Deans related to the university’s residence requirement.

The next meetings of the Academic Policies Committee are scheduled for October
10 and 24. The principal agenda item on Oct. 10 is teacher/course evaluations
by students, and the main agenda item on Oct. 24 is multiple minors/concentrations.
Please get in touch with the appropriate Committee members mentioned above with
questions. Anyone with interest is welcome to attend these meetings.

Facilities and Support Services and Library Committee – Stanley
Zoltek
The Library Committee will meet on Oct. 24 at 2:00 in the Fenwick Library. A
representative from the Bookstore will be present to discuss the problem with
class materials they are currently copying and selling for classes. Mr. Bumgarner,
Assoc. V.P. for University Services seeks senate input on the copying issue.
A Library report will be presented by John Zenelis at this meeting.

Faculty Matters Committee – Joe Scimecca
The draft of the results of the Faculty Administrative Survey have been sent
to the printer. The Committee will study moving future pay raises to Sept. 1
from Dec. 1. They will also pursue retirement benefits for faculty teaching
in summer.

Nominations Committee – Rick Coffinberger
R. Coffinberger reported it is the charge of the Nominations Committee to staff
all Standing and University Committees. R. Coffinberger would appreciate referrals
for committees needing senate representation. The search committee for the American
Disabilities Coordinator replacement is currently seeking a senator to serve
on their search committee.

Organization and Operations – Estela Blaisten-Barojas
After meeting with the student government the O&O Committee will decide
on who will select the student representative for the Gen Ed Committee.

Executive Committee – Don Boileau
Don Boileau reported that the Executive Committee heard a report from Jack Censer
on the BOV Committee for Faculty Awards and Incentives. The Committee is still
deliberating and has not developed final recommendations for presentation to
the
Board of Visitors. The Senate should expect the report to come from the Board
to the Senate.

The O&O Committee is developing a tracking system for motions passed. This
will appear under Unfinished Business and will also be seen on the web. Anyone
interested in serving as Chair, pro-tem, please let Don Boileau know of your
interest.

Suzanne Slayden has agreed to serve as parliamentarian for the Senate. If you
have issues that need to be discussed, please notify the Executive Committee
of the Senate, and they will then decide if they should be heard by the full
Senate.

V. University Standing Committees
External Academic Relations – Ariela Sofer
The Faculty Senate of Virginia Forum on “Virginia’s Higher Education
in the Next Four Years” will be held on Tuesday, October 16, 12:00 –
7:00 at the Virginia Union University, Richmond. Among the forum’s events
are a speech and Q&A
Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Mark Warner, a speech and Q&A with Republican
gubernatorial candidate Mark Earley or his representative, a keynote luncheon
speech by the Honorable John H. Chichester (R-Fredericksburg), Chair of the
Senate Finance Committee, as well as two panel discussions. Further information
about the program, as well as a registration form can be found at http://www.radford.edu/~chermann/FSV/2001
forum.htm. Faculty who wish to car pool to Richmond should contact Diana Smith
at the Faculty Senate Office, dsmitk@gmu.edu 3-2990 for the arrangements.

Faculty Senate Liaison to the BOV – Ariela Sofer
The BOV held its first meeting of the year on September 26. The Board includes
four new appointees: Visitor Richard Fink, who has been reappointed to a second
term, and Visitors David Anderson, Gary Shapiro, and Sudhakar V. Shenoy who
replace Visitors Cooper, Kristol, and Lauterberg. Visitor Meese and McGeary
will both be continuing their terms as rector, and vice rector. Visitor Deecy
Gray was elected in absentia as Secretary, and Visitors Fuelner and Dewberry
were elected as the two addition members of the Executive Committee. Among the
new committee appointments, Visitors Miller and Fink were elected as Chair and
Vice Chair of the Faculty and Academic Standards Committee, Visitors LaRose
and Hazel were elected Chair and Vice Chair of the Student Affairs Committee.

The Faculty and Academic Standards Committee approved Ph.D. programs in bioinformatics
and biosciences, and an M.S. degree program in social work. It also approved
a change of status for the Program in Social Work to a department. However
the Committee deferred till November a decision on the change of status for
the Program in Environmental Science and Policy to a Department, under the argument
that the Committee had not seen the external reviews that had recommended to
Dean Struppa on creating such an autonomous entity.

On the Committee’s Agenda also was the Task Force on Faculty Rewards and
Incentives. Visitor Herrity reported that the Task Force had met, and received
a report from Committee Chair Jack Censor. Herrity also reported that former
GMU faculty members Terry Ryan and Dan Rathbone had testified to the Task Force
about their frustration at their tenure proceedings. Herrity then requested
the Provost to come back with an economic feasibility analysis for a separate
tenure-track system based on teaching.

On another issue concerning faculty rewards, Herrity raised the question of
medical coverage for part-time faculty and requested that the University look
into this. Herrity was also very keen that GSE would look at developing a program
for teaching by retired military. It was decided that Rector Meese would bring
this up in an upcoming meeting with the Dean of GSE. Herrity also proposed discussion
on a policy whereby the BOV would give advice and consent in appointments of
Deans within the University.

This will be on the agenda for the November meeting. On further matters, Herrity
noted that we are the only major Commonwealth University planning for
a substantial increase in its enrollment. He deemed GMU to be a beacon to people
in higher education on these grounds, and suggested that this should be a theme
of every Board member in their communication with the General Assembly, to assist
GMU in obtaining support. Optional Retirement Plans were one of the many items
discussed by the Finance and Resource Development Committee. The University
has been required by the state to assume responsibility over the ORP’s.
To reduce the administrative load, the University requested the Board’s
permission to reduce the number of vendors permitted to provide ORP’s
from six to three. The three vendors to be kept are TIAA/CREF, Fidelity and
VALIC; they cover 95% of the Faculty in ORP’s and all three offer matching
funds. A total of 46 faculty are currently enrolled in the other three funds
and although they would be allowed to keep all existing monies in their current
programs, beginning January they would have to deposit any new funds in one
of the above-mentioned ORP’s. The Board unanimously approved this recommendation.

In other matters, the University has developed departmental profiles, which
will summarize specific trend data on specific measures by units. These profiles
will be used to set performance targets by units for specific performance measures.
A departments profile elements would typically include: number of degrees; FTE
enrollments; research per FTE faculty; credit hours per FTE faculty; faculty/student
ratio; source of financial funds and use of these funds. SCHEV has recommended
a salary increase of 5.8% per year for GMU faculty for 2002-2004. Recommended
increases for other universities are in the range from 5% to above 7%. Past
salary recommendations of SCHEV have not been any indication of the eventual
salary raises.

The major agenda item for the day was the university's 2002-2004 biennium budget
request to the Governor. The Board approved a $44.9 million budget that seeks
100% of the base budget deficiency of $25 million.

General Education Committee – Sheryl Beach
The first Gen Ed Committee meeting of the year was held on Sept. 28. Peter Stearns
attended and goals for the year were discussed. The first faculty workshop on
synthesis was held on May 14, with 30 participants and will continue meeting
on this
through the year. The first faculty workshop on Writing assessment was held
on Sept. 14 with 20 participants, all other undergraduate units will participate
throughout the year. One faculty member has been designated in each department
to take the lead on writing. This is an important leadership role that chairs/deans/directors
need to recognize in faculty rewards structure.

An assessment of Gen Ed area: In its 2nd phase of writing in IT, new areas
this year will be scientific literacy and quantitative reasoning. In the future,
areas assessed will be Critical Thinking and Oral Communication. Many thanks
to Drs. Karen Gentemann, Ruth Green, Chris Thaiss, Terry Zawacki, and Bernard
White and other for organizing the respective assessment teams thus far.

Global Understanding and International Curriculum: Is working with Dr. Julie
Christensen to put together a joint faculty workshop for global faculty, Global
and International Committee, and Gen Ed Committee to work on internationalizing
the
curriculum.

Western Civilization statistics this fall are as follows: census 98% full, (l054
seats offered, l035 filled) videos running on GMU TV Monday through Saturday.
Thank you to the history department and other GMU units who contributed to this
effort.

VI. New Business
P. Stearns provided information on GMU training retired military personnel for
teaching. BOV member Jack Herrity is fond of this idea. The Graduate School
of Education has done a market study on this issue.

A new committee was formed by P. Stearns, Provost to study the ways in which
GMU could move into Tier 2 of U.S. News and World Report. We are currently in
Tier 3.